Networked desktop computing is typical in both the office and home. Networking of mobile devices, such as mobile telephones, laptop computers, headsets, and PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants), is more difficult. New wireless standards, such as IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth (BT) are designed to enable these devices to communicate with each other and a wired LAN (Local Area Network).
Bluetooth is a low cost wireless connection technology. Bluetooth is essentially a point-to-point (PPP) wireless communication technology that was developed as a replacement for using cable (i.e., hard wired) connections between devices. The Bluetooth technology is described in the Bluetooth specification, available from Bluetooth SIG, Inc. (see also the www.bluetooth.com web site), the entire teachings of which are herein incorporated by reference. This technology provides for a common attachment approach for different devices, and so enables mobile phones, laptops, headsets, and PDA's to be easily networked in the office and eventually in public locations. Other standards, such as the IEEE 802.11 (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers) and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) HIPERLAN/2, provide a generally similar wireless connection function as Bluetooth and may be used to support WLAN (wireless LAN) communications. See the IEEE 802.11 “Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer Specifications,” the entire teachings of which are herein incorporated by reference. See also the ETSI specifications for HIPERLAN/2, such as ETSI document number TR 101 683, “Broadband Radio Access Networks (BRAN); HIPERLAN Type 2; System Overview,” the entire teachings of which are herein incorporated by reference.
The Bluetooth technology provides for a piconet (or subnet), which is a group of up to eight devices, consisting of one master and a maximum of seven slaves that share a common hop sequence (based on a spread-spectrum frequency hopping technique, as is known in the art). Within the virtual channel created by a common hop sequence, the bandwidth is divided into seven time slots. One or more time slots are used for each master-slave communication. Amalgamating time slots increases capacity on that master-slave link.
As a user moves a mobile device connected to a WLAN from one location to another, the mobile device must establish a new connection with a new AP (access point, such as a local area network access point) when moving out of range of the previous AP. Typically, this transfer from the previous AP to the new AP requires the breaking down of the connection with the previous AP and the establishment of a new connection with the new AP.